# Can LLMs Generate Behaviors for Embodied Virtual Agents Based on Personality Traits?

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.21087 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.21087/

## Key facts

- Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Social simulation and multi-agent debate, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use.
- Builds on 11 of its 67 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 27 Aug 2025.

## Placed in

- LLM agents and tool use / [Social simulation and multi-agent debate](https://mlsanity.com/agents/social-simulation-and-multi-agent-debate/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 11 of 11)

- [A Survey on Multimodal Large Language Models for Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.12320/) (2023)
- [The Revolution of Multimodal Large Language Models: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.12451/) (2024)
- [Do LLMs Have Distinct and Consistent Personality? TRAIT: Personality Testset designed for LLMs with Psychometrics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.14703/) (2024)
- [A Comprehensive Review of Multimodal Large Language Models: Performance and Challenges Across Different Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.01319/) (2024)
- [Personality Trait Detection Using Bagged SVM over BERT Word Embedding Ensembles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.01309/) (2020)
- [Virtual Agents for Alcohol Use Counseling: Exploring LLM-Powered Motivational Interviewing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.08095/) (2024)
- [KODIS: A Multicultural Dispute Resolution Dialogue Corpus](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.12723/) (2025)
- [An End-to-End Conversational Style Matching Agent](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.02760/) (2019)
- [Engaged and Affective Virtual Agents: Their Impact on Social Presence, Trustworthiness, and Decision-Making in the Group Discussion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.10385/) (2023)
- [Empathic Grounding: Explorations using Multimodal Interaction and Large Language Models with Conversational Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.01824/) (2024)
- [Large Language Models for Virtual Human Gesture Selection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.14408/) (2025)

## Built on by (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [Personality Expression Across Contexts: Linguistic and Behavioral Variation in LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.01063/) (2026)
- [Can LLMs Truly Embody Human Personality? Analyzing AI and Human Behavior Alignment in Dispute Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.07414/) (2026)
- [Towards Trust Calibration in Socially Interactive Agents: Investigating Gendered Multimodal Behaviors Generation with LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.19798/) (2026)
- [LLM-Driven Personalities for Decision Making in Emergency Simulations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.31038/) (2026)
- [LLM-Based Selection of Incongruent Verbal and Nonverbal Behavior for Virtual Humans](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.22731/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This study proposes a framework that employs personality prompting with Large Language Models to generate verbal and nonverbal behaviors for virtual agents based on personality traits. Focusing on extraversion, we evaluated the system in two scenarios: negotiation and ice breaking, using both introverted and extroverted agents. In Experiment 1, we conducted agent to agent simulations and performed linguistic analysis and personality classification to assess whether the LLM generated language reflected the intended traits and whether the corresponding nonverbal behaviors varied by personality. In Experiment 2, we carried out a user study to evaluate whether these personality aligned behaviors were consistent with their intended traits and perceptible to human observers. Our results show that LLMs can generate verbal and nonverbal behaviors that align with personality traits, and that users are able to recognize these traits through the agents' behaviors. This work underscores the potential of LLMs in shaping personality aligned virtual agents.